Books published by Pelagic Publishing

This volume is devoted to the causes of amphibian decline and to conservation measures in Southern Europe. Experts from each country describe the ecological background and the conservation status of affected species, with an emphasis on native species.

A comprehensive guide to everything scientists need to know about data management, this book is essential for researchers who need to learn how to organize, document and take care of their own data.Researchers in all disciplines are faced with the challenge of managing the growing amounts of digital data that are the foundation of their research. Kristin Briney offers practical advice and clearly explains policies and principles, in an accessible and in-depth text that will allow researchers to understand and achieve the goal of better research data management.Data Management for Researchers includes sections on:* The data problem - an introduction to the growing importance and challenges of using digital data in research. Covers both the inherent problems with managing digital information, as well as how the research landscape is changing to give more value to research datasets and code.* The data lifecycle - a framework for data's place within the research process and how data's role is changing. Greater emphasis on data sharing and data reuse will not only change the way we conduct research but also how we manage research data.* Planning for data management - covers the many aspects of data management and how to put them together in a data management plan. This section also includes sample data management plans.* Documenting your data - an often overlooked part of the data management process, but one that is critical to good management; data without documentation are frequently unusable.* Organizing your data - explains how to keep your data in order using organizational systems and file naming conventions. This section also covers using a database to organize and analyze content.* Improving data analysis - covers managing information through the analysis process. This section starts by comparing the management of raw and analyzed data and then describes ways to make analysis easier, such as spreadsheet best practices. It also examines practices for research code, including version control systems.* Managing secure and private data - many researchers are dealing with data that require extra security. This section outlines what data falls into this category and some of the policies that apply, before addressing the best practices for keeping data secure.* Short-term storage - deals with the practical matters of storage and backup and covers the many options available. This section also goes through the best practices to insure that data are not lost.* Preserving and archiving your data - digital data can have a long life if properly cared for. This section covers managing data in the long term including choosing good file formats and media, as well as determining who will manage the data after the end of the project.* Sharing/publishing your data - addresses how to make data sharing across research groups easier, as well as how and why to publicly share data. This section covers intellectual property and licenses for datasets, before ending with the altmetrics that measure the impact of publicly shared data.* Reusing data - as more data are shared, it becomes possible to use outside data in your research. This chapter discusses strategies for finding datasets and lays out how to cite data once you have found it.This book is designed for active scientific researchers but it is useful for anyone who wants to get more from their data: academics, educators, professionals or anyone who teaches data management, sharing and preservation."e;An excellent practical treatise on the art and practice of data management, this book is essential to any researcher, regardless of subject or discipline."e; -Robert Buntrock, Chemical Information Bulletin

"e;Evidence bases for conservation are becoming increasingly important to convince landowners and politicians of the need to take action in defence of species and habitats all around the world. A valuable feature of this book is its emphasis on collecting and analysing such essential information."e; Trevor Beebee, PhyllomedusaAmphibians are among the most globally endangered groups of vertebrates with more than one-third of species being assessed as declining or threatened. Often, amphibian declines can be attributed to a suite of interacting factors, many of which are human in origin, but further information is needed to elaborate the key causes and to discover ways of reversing declines.Robust surveys provide vital ecological and biological data on amphibian populations, and underpin the decisions made to protect species and reverse their declines. Ongoing monitoring informs land managers and decision makers about whether they are taking the right action. This book is designed to help you carry out amphibian surveying and monitoring so that the results of your surveys can be used effectively.Part 1 introduces amphibians: order Anura (frogs and toads); Caudata (newts and salamanders); and order Gymnophonia (caecilians).Part 2 is essential reading before you start surveying. It introduces the different types of survey and monitoring programmes and discusses survey aims and resources. It contains chapters on collecting and handling survey data; survey permissions and licencing; health and safety, and biosecurity; and handling amphibians.Part 3 discusses everything you need to know during your survey, and provides a detailed look at amphibian survey methods.Part 4 covers presenting and using your survey's data to best effect.A useful resources section is also provided, with example survey forms and details of additional information resources that will optimize the impacts of your surveys.Key amphibian survey techniques are discussed with reference to published examples of successful surveys - so you'll be able to choose what's right for your situation. Tips on optimizing your survey effort and handling amphibians in the field are also included. Whether carrying out a student expedition project or seeking information to support the management of a protected area, this book contains essential advice from an amphibian ecologist who has encountered the same sorts of decisions you'll face when planning your surveys.

Marine Mammal Observer and Passive Acoustic Monitoring Handbook is the ultimate instruction manual for mitigation measures to minimise man-made acoustical and physical disturbances to marine mammals from industrial and defence activities.Based on more than two decades of offshore experience, and a decade of supplying MMO and PAM services (commercial and scientific), the Handbook is a long-overdue reference guide that seeks to improve standards worldwide for marine operations such as seismic and drilling exploration, wind farm and civil engineering piling, dredging, trenching, rock-dumping, hydrographical surveys, and military/defence exercises. By popular request, this manual will also form an accompaniment to MMO and PAM courses.The Handbook consolidates all aspects of this discipline into one easily accessible resource, to educate all stakeholders (e.g. MMOs, PAM operators, suppliers, recruitment agencies, clients, contractors, regulators, NGOs, consultants, scientists, academia and media), regardless of experience.Topics include worldwide legislation, compliance, anthropogenic noise sources and potential effects, training, offshore life, visual and acoustic monitoring (theory and practice), marine mammal distribution, hearing and vocalisations, and report writing.Advice is provided on implementing sensible and practical mitigation techniques, appropriate technologies, data collection, client and regulator liaison, and project kick-off meetings."e;The Handbook is an indispensable How To guide to the growing and increasingly important occupation of marine mammal monitoring, written with clarity and humor by scientists who have extensive experience in this field."e; -Dr Phillip J. Clapham, world-renowned cetologist and Director of the Cetacean Assessment and Ecology Program at the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle.

This volume is devoted to the causes of amphibian decline and to conservation measures in Western Europe (Britain, Ireland, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal). Experts from each country describe the ecological background and the conservation status of affected species, with an emphasis on native species.

This synopsis covers evidence for the effects of conservation interventions for native farmland wildlife. It is restricted to evidence captured on the website www.conservationevidence.com. It includes papers published in the journal Conservation Evidence, evidence summarized on our database and systematic reviews collated by the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence. It is the thrid volume in the series Synopses of Conservation Evidence.Evidence was collected from all European countries west of Russia, but not those south of France, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary and Romania.A list of interventions to conserve wildlife on farmland was developed collaboratively by a team of thirteen experts. A number of interventions that are not currently agri-environment options were added during this process, such as 'Provide nest boxes for bees (solitary or bumblebees)' and 'Implement food labelling schemes relating to biodiversity-friendly farming'. Interventions relating to the creation or management of habitats not considered commercial farmland (such as lowland heath, salt marsh and farm woodland) were removed.The list of interventions was organized into categories based on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifications of direct threats and conservation actions. Interventions that fall under the threat category 'Agriculture' are grouped by farming system, with separate sections for interventions that apply to arable or livestock farms, or across all farming types.

An indispensable manual for conservationists throughout the UK and much of mainland Europe. It provides conservation guidance on the twelve non-marine amphibian and reptile species native to the British Isles. It covers a wide range of issues, from advice on surveying to reintroductions.

A comprehensive handbook covering all aspects of the conservation of Barn Owls. Written by the Barn Owl Trust, this book includes in-depth information on Barn Owl survey techniques, relevant ecology, Barn Owls and the law, mortality, habitat management, use of nest boxes and barn Owl rehabilitation. Essential reading for ecologists, planners, land managers and ornithologists.

Following on from the success of their 2015 book Behind the Binoculars, Keith and Mark are back again, taking you behind the scenes, and behind the binoculars, of a diverse range of birding and wildlife personalities.

This fascinating reference book delves into the origins of the vernacular and scientific names of sharks, rays, skates and chimeras. Each entry offers a concise biography, revealing the hidden stories and facts behind each species' name. Full of interesting facts and humorous titbits, the authors' extensive research and detective work has made this book a comprehensive source of knowledge on everyone associated with the naming of a species. A fascinating resource for anyone with an interest in sharks, from curious naturalist to professional ichthyologist, it is an essential addition to the library of anyone wishing to satisfy those tickling questions on the mysteries behind the names.Sometimes a name refers not to a person but to a fictional character or mythological figure. Eptatretus eos is named after the Greek goddess of the dawn in reference to the pink colouring of the hagfish. The Chilean Roundray Urotrygon cimar, named after Centro de Investigacin en Ciencias del Mar y Limnologa in honour of its 20th anniversary, and the Angular Angelshark Squatina Guggenheim, named after the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, are both named after institutions. The Whiteleg Skate Amblyraja taaf is just a shorthand way of describing a toponym - Territoire des Terres australes et antarctiques franaises. There are also entries which are light-hearted such as the one for a lady who told us "e;that decoration of her cakes have included roughtail skate Bathyraja trachura, red abalone Haliotis rufescens, and chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha."e;Following the success of their previous Eponym Dictionaries, the authors have joined forces to give the Elasmobranch group of fishes a similar treatment but they have also included the describers and authors of the original descriptions of the fishes involved, in addition to those names that are, or appear to be, eponyms.They have tracked down some 850 names of living as well as dead people. Of these half are eponyms after people who have fish named after them and may also have described a fish or fishes. The other half are ichthyologists, marine biologists and other scientists who have become involved in the description and naming of sharks, rays, skates and chimeras. For each person mentioned there is brief, pithy biography. Additionally there are some 50 entries for what sound like eponyms but turned out not to have any connection to a person, such as the Alexandrine Torpedo is named after the city in Egypt and not Alexander the Great.In some cases these are a reminder of the courage of scientists whose dedicated research in remote locations exposed them to disease and even violent death. The eponym ensures that their memory will survive, aided by reference works such as this highly readable dictionary. Altogether 1,577 fishes are listed.

Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool that can transform the way you use data. This book explains in comprehensive and user-friendly detail how to manage, make sense of, explore and share data, giving scientists at all levels the skills they need to maximize the usefulness of their data. Readers will learn how to use Excel to: * Build a dataset - how to handle variables and notes, rearrangements and edits to data. * Check datasets - dealing with typographic errors, data validation and numerical errors. *Make sense of data - including datasets for regression and correlation; summarizing data with averages and variability; and visualizing data with graphs, pivot charts and sparklines. *Explore regression data - finding, highlighting and visualizing correlations. *Explore time-related data - using pivot tables, sparklines and line plots. *Explore association data - creating and visualizing contingency tables. *Explore differences - pivot tables and data visualizations including box-whisker plots. *Share data - methods for exporting and sharing your datasets, summaries and graphs. Alongside the text, Have a Go exercises, Tips and Notes give readers practical experience and highlight important points, and helpful self-assessment exercises and summary tables can be found at the end of each chapter. Supplementary material can also be downloaded on the companion website. Managing Data Using Excel is an essential book for all scientists and students who use data and are seeking to manage data more effectively. It is aimed at scientists at all levels but it is especially useful for university-level research, from undergraduates to postdoctoral researchers.

The first comprehensive, single book on plant communities in the British uplands, providing concise descriptions of all currently recognised British upland vegetation types. The book brings together all of the upland communities described in the National Vegetation Classification.

This book brings together scientific evidence and experience relevant to the practical conservation of bats. The authors worked with an international group of bat experts and conservationists to develop a global list of interventions that could benefit bats.For each intervention, the book summarises studies captured by the Conservation Evidence project, where that intervention has been tested and its effects on bats quantified. The result is a thorough guide to what is known, or not known, about the effectiveness of bat conservation actions throughout the world.Bat Conservationis the fifth in a series of Synopses that will cover different species groups and habitats, gradually building into a comprehensive summary of evidence on the effects of conservation interventions for all biodiversity throughout the world.By making evidence accessible in this way, we hope to enable a change in the practice of conservation, so it can become more evidence-based. We also aim to highlight where there are gaps in knowledge.Evidence from all around the world is included. If there appears to be a bias towards evidence from northern European or North American temperate environments, this reflects a current bias in the published research that is available to us. Conservation interventions are grouped primarily according to the relevant direct threats, as defined in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Unified Classification of Direct Threats (www.iucnredlist.org/technical-documents/classification-schemes).

Amphibian Conservation is the fourth in the series of Synopses of Conservation Evidence, linked to the online resource www.ConservationEvidence.com.This synopsis is part of the Conservation Evidence project and provides a useful resource for conservationists. It forms part of a series designed to promote a more evidence-based approach to biodiversity conservation. Others in the series include bee, bird, farmland and bat conservation and many others are in preparation.Approximately 32% of the 7,164+ amphibian species are currently threatened with extinction and at least 43% of species are declining. Despite this, until recently amphibians and their conservation had received little attention. Although work is nowbeing carried out to conserve many species, often it is not adequately documented.This book brings together and summarises the available scientific evidence and experience relevant to the practical conservation of amphibians.The authors consulted an international group of amphibian experts and conservationists to produce a thorough summary of what is known, or not known, about the effectiveness of amphibian conservation actions across the world."e;The book is packed with literature summaries and citations; a veritable information goldmine for graduate students and researchers. It also admirably provides decision makers with a well-researched resource of proven interventions that can be employed to stem/reverse the decline of amphibian populations."e; -John G Palis, Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society

This volume covers the species attributed to the class Chlorophyta (the green seaweeds). Each species description incorporates notes on ecology and distribution and many are supported by line illustrations.

This volume explores the yellow-brown seaweed species attributed to the class Tribophyceae. The description of each species incorporates notes on ecology and distribution and many are supported by line illustrations.

This volume covers all the families, genera and species in the red algae Ceramiales. Each entry gives notes on ecology and distribution, and there are user-friendly keys to identification of species and genera.

Interactions between species are of fundamental importance to all living systems and the framework we have for studying these interactions is community ecology. This is important to our understanding of the planets biological diversity and how species interactions relate to the functioning of ecosystems at all scales. Species do not live in isolation and the study of community ecology is of practical application in a wide range of conservation issues.The study of ecological community data involves many methods of analysis. In this book you will learn many of the mainstays of community analysis including: diversity, similarity and cluster analysis, ordination and multivariate analyses. This book is for undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers seeking a step-by-step methodology for analysing plant and animal communities using R and Excel.Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet is virtually ubiquitous and familiar to most computer users. It is a robust program that makes an excellent storage and manipulation system for many kinds of data, including community data. The R program is a powerful and flexible analytical system able to conduct a huge variety of analytical methods, which means that the user only has to learn one program to address many research questions. Its other advantage is that it is open source and therefore completely free. Novel analytical methods are being added constantly to the already comprehensive suite of tools available in R.Mark Gardener is both an ecologist and an analyst. He has worked in a range of ecosystems around the world and has been involved in research across a spectrum of community types. His knowledge of R is largely self-taught and this gives him insight into the needs of students learning to use R for complicated analyses.

Flora of the Outer Hebrides is the first comprehensive publication to describe the flowering plants and ferns of the Outer Hebrides, comprising over 700 species. Introductory chapters cover the climate, geography, geology, soils, vegetation and botanical history of the area.

This book brings together scientific evidence and experience relevant to the practical conservation of wild birds. The authors worked with an international group of bird experts and conservationists to develop a global list of interventions that could benefit wild birds. For each intervention, the book summarises studies captured by the Conservation Evidence project, where that intervention has been tested and its effects on birds quantified. The result is a thorough guide to what is known, or not known, about the effectiveness of bird conservation actions throughout the world.The preparation of this synopsis was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and Arcadia.

First published by the RSPB in 1998, this book is a practical guide to surveying and monitoring techniques for use in the breeding season - in assessing breeding success as well as population levels - and during the winter. It gives instructions for more than 120 UK bird species, mainly those of conservation concern.

Designed for use in the field, this small-format guide provides valuable information on techniques for environmental audit. Information is contained on the rationale and history of Phase 1 survey, giving advice on planning the survey, habitat mapping, and compiling target notes.

This volume covers the species attributed to the class Fucophyceae. Each species description incorporates notes on ecology and distribution and many are supported by line illustrations.

A practical guide for surveyors and ecologists to assist in field studies when using the classification for mires and heaths. It delivers a detailed account of 38 mire and 22 heath communities, providing information on their composition, structure, distribution and affinities to other types of vegetation in Britain and Europe.

This book is a practical manual covering management for invertebrates: it provides guidelines to enable reserve managers to take account of the vulnerable habitat features so important to invertebrates.

This book brings together scientific evidence and experience relevant to the practical conservation of wild bees. The authors worked with an international group of bee experts and conservationists to develop a global list of interventions that could benefit wild bees.

This volume is written by leading authorities in red algae. All subfamilies, genera and species are described, notes on ecology and distribution given, and each named species is illustrated by one or more half-tones or line drawings showing distinctive features. User-friendly keys are provided to enable identifi cation of genera and species.

The first of three parts comprising Volume 1, this book covers the orders Nemaliales and Gigartinales. A general introduction to the Rhodophyta deals with such topics as morphology, reproduction and economic utilization. Each species is then described and illustrated and notes on the ecology and distribution are given.

This book brings together all of the current research and information on British mosquitoes, providing a comprehensive, accessible guide to the study and identification of British species.

This handbook provides a general introduction to the National Vegetation Classification (NVC). It details the methodology for sampling and describing vegetation in the field and explains how such information can be used to identify plant communities.